Both these processor coolers are very similar to one another in many aspects: design, number of heatpipes, size and weight. However, their cooling efficiency is dramatically different. And our today’s article will explain why.

Cooler Master Hyper PWM 412 (RR-H412-20PK-R1)

The back and the sides of the box contain almost all the information about the cooler, including technical specifications and the list of supported processor sockets.

The cooler is secured inside polyurethane foam casing. The bundled accessories are neatly arranged inside a small cardboard box on top of the cooler:

Among the included accessories I would like to point out an additional set of plastic mounts for the second fan, good thermal paste and installation manual in multiple languages. Cooler Master Hyper PWM 412is manufactured in China and costs $39. It comes with a 1-year warranty.

Despite its entry-level positioning, the cooler is pretty attractive. Chromium-plated top heatsink plate and a fan with a glossy frame and fancy impeller are really eye-catching:

The size of Cooler Master Hyper PWM 412 is quite common for tower coolers. It measures 160x132x99 mm:

This classical tower heatsink consists of four copper heatpipes 6 mm in diameter, 41 aluminum fins pressed against the heatpipes, a decorative top plate and an aluminum block pressed against the heatpipes above the cooler base:

The heatsink fins are 0.5 mm thick and the gaps between them are 2 mm wide:

There is no official explanation for the sophisticated hollows in the heatsink fins. They could have been made to lower the heatsink weight, or whatever other reason the engineers had in mind:

The heatpipes pierce heatsink fins in a staggered pattern, which allowed not only to improve their density in the base, but also to distribute the heat more evenly over the heatsink fins:

The key peculiarity of the Cooler Master Hyper PWM 412 that distinguishes it from the similar products is the use of enhanced direct contact technology called CDC (Continuous Direct Contact). This is how it works:

The advantages of this technology over the traditional Direct Contact are obvious: there are no aluminum (in some cases – copper) inserts between the heatpipes in the base of the cooler, which ensures more even heat exchange between the processor and the processor.